Blurb:

Found at the Library Story Description:

His entire life, Tommy Garrett has dealt with self-doubts. He thought he’d conquered the majority of them until a chance meeting with an author brought his illiteracy to the forefront…again. Growing up with un-diagnosed dyslexia has left Tommy barely able to read, but books are his Nirvana. Now he spends his life creating art dedicated to the love of those “untouchable” items.

Robert McIntyre, Mac, is a best-selling, highly celebrated author. But his point of view has become a little bit too narrow…until Tommy opens his eyes. That chance meeting has changed everything about his world. He has no idea how to find the beautiful man he met, and offended, at the library book sale. But when he does, Tommy’s life is in crisis-mode. It’s the holidays and Mac can’t just standby when Tommy needs help, whether Tommy wants it or not.

Two artistic men. One shared passion for books.

Life is hard, and sometimes when conflict arises you have to write your own plot twist to pull yourself out of the fray.

Loving Books by Christi Snow

Loving Books for Prism Book Alliance

by Christi Snow

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I adore the written word. Books are my life…literally. I read around 400 books a year and write 4-6 books a year. That translates into most of my day revolving around the written word…ya know, in between taking care of my home and family.

But last year, I got an idea for a book. And it happened to be an idea that came from a fellow book blogger who channels her same love for books through her Found at the Library posts on her blog. That phrase struck a nerve in my writer’s brain and Mac and Tommy were born.

This was a book I started the week of Christmas (a time of the year that is always good for my muse…something about twinkle lights inspire me.) When I began writing it, I had no plan. I just knew there were two men who met at the library who loved books. But to be a good romantic book, there has to be conflict. What if they loved books in different ways?

One hero, Tommy, is dyslexic. That makes reading difficult for him, but he still loves books. He just has to enjoy them in a different way. For Tommy, that means he listens to audiobooks to get the story. People with dyslexia are more visual learners just because a picture is easier for them to process, and Tommy happens to be an artist with books as his medium.

This is something that Mac, the other hero in my story, doesn’t understand. Using books to create art means that Tommy is literally destroying the ability to read a copy of a book because his art comes out of the center of the pages.

Here’s an exclusive excerpt featuring Mac with his literary agent who drags him to see Tommy’s art. Something Mac has no desire to see…at first.

Excerpt

The gallery windows came into sight. He stopped walking and looked down at Emily in horror, before glaring back at the desecration.

Books. Hundreds of them cascaded in the windows, held there by invisible props, but they’d been violated. Mutilated. Torn pages littered the window display, and Mac’s gut clenched at the awfulness of it. Who would do that? Even for the sake of art. Suddenly, Mac didn’t care about avoiding Stig. Now he wanted to find him and rail at him for having this kind of exhibit in his gallery. How could the mutilation of books be celebrated like this? It was a travesty.

She shook her head at him and tugged on his arm. “No,” she said, her firm voice, telling him she wouldn’t listen to his arguments tonight. “You’re going to go in there and really look at this art before you make that snap judgment I can already see in your eyes. Give it a chance, Mac. I’m telling you, if there was ever a guy who could celebrate the beauty of books by changing them into art, this guy can.”

“Em, you know how I feel about this crap.” They’d had this discussion when she started carrying a purse made out of a book a few years ago. It had been horrifying. Someone had gutted a book and just used the cover.

As he looked at the remnants of book pages filling the window, the same sort of sick feeling roiled up in his gut. That people could defile books in such a way that negated all the blood, sweat, and tears the author put into the interior of it offended him in the worst way. It felt as if someone reached into his chest and randomly began pulling out organs.

“Okay, I’ll make a deal with you,” Emily said. “Let’s go inside. If you feel this same way after really looking at the exhibit, I will do all of your Christmas shopping for you. You won’t have to look at a website or the inside of a store for the next month.”

He shook his head. “You’re insane, but you know how much I hate the stores this time of the year, and I definitely don’t have the time, so you have a deal. I won’t pass up on a sure thing.” He took a deep breath and steeled himself. “Let’s get this over with.”

Mac suppressed a shudder, avoided looking again at the carnage in the windows, and strode straight to the door, pulling it open for Emily. The Minton Gallery was a very upscale boutique gallery that utilized walls of black and white for showcasing the art. But the exposed ductwork and crown molding was all painted vibrant, glossy lipstick red. The hints of that minimalistic décor spread out here even in the foyer. They left their coats at the coat check area. A waiter immediately accosted them and offered them champagne flutes or the option to hit the open bar, also conveniently placed in the foyer. Mac chose the bar. It would be a long night, and he needed a stronger fortification than champagne could provide.

While Mac waited for the bartender to pour his Scotch, he glanced around. The only sign of the exhibit at this point was a large banner that read…

Typecast.

Art Celebrating Words by T. Garrett.

The entire appearance of the sign was minimalistic. Only words, no graphics. Much more sedate and refined in style compared to the flamboyance that Stig usually employed. No lipstick red on the sign.

The bartender handed him his drink, and Mac dropped his tip into the jar.

“Shall we?” Emily asked.

“If we must,” Mac muttered.

“Attitude,” Emily hissed under her breath and then pasted a smile on her face as she pulled him toward the entrance of the main gallery.

They strode through the curtains that covered the arched entrance and entered a darkened room. This was a highly unusual atmosphere for Stig to employ. Although filled to capacity, hardly any noise rose from the crowd. Somewhere in a darkened corner, a lone saxophone player played soft, melodic jazz.

Pedestals throughout the darkened room featured spotlighted art pieces under glass. Emily pulled him to the first one. The book lay open across the bottom of the display, but coming out of it were sculptures that rose high above it, like the book had taken life. The artistic scene looked historical—like from the middle 1800’s—and featured a woman on a tree swing surrounded by her suitors. Every single bit of it was carved and formed using the pages of the book. Mac looked at the plaque, which said, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, $2500.

He circled the piece. The detail and craftsmanship were amazing. Each figure even had a face with discernable features. And then it began to move. The swing actually worked. And to think that everything in this piece was carved out of the center pages of that book was astounding. He looked at Emily, his mouth hanging open.

She gave him a superior smile. “I know. I told you. Come on. There’s so much more to see.”

The exhibit was amazing and so incredible that suddenly the hushed, reverent air in the exhibit hall made sense. The art pieces were as varied as the books they were created from. Some pieces featured standing books, in some the art rose out of the books, sometimes the carving went into the book, which created a 3D cave effect. And there was everything from fiction to non-fiction to reference books used to create the pieces.

As Mac examined each piece closely, he realized every single sculpture expressed a visual exploration of the content of the book. An old-styled book about manners had a table rising out of it with perfect place settings. An old medical text had a 3D skeleton carved within the midst of its standing pages. The viewer could circle the book and see the skeleton with its bones covered in the written text from every angle. It was incredible. A thesaurus had a floating alphabet coming out of it like a reverse mobile and it was virtually impossible to see how the letters remained aloft above the text.

Even more remarkable, the pieces were prompting discussions about the books, and the way the artist had interpreted the stories. The gallery patrons were debating the highs and lows of the tales and going even deeper into the subtexts than the art had.

But the piece that blew him away was one carved from one of his books. Before he looked at the plaque, Mac knew this was his book because he recognized the scene. How could the artist see it exactly as Mac saw it in his head? This particular piece stood open, and the Magira Star System had been carved and drawn into the depths of the pages. It had about twenty layers to it and deep in the middle a faint blue light source lit the entire piece. Coming out of that center was the starship Mystique from his latest release, The Creation of Society.

Emily approached with a gasp. “Is that…?”

He nodded and swallowed hard, overcome by seeing his creation in visual form. It was a bit overwhelming and so utterly beautiful. The artist had caught the silence and tranquility of space travel in this single scene. It took Mac’s breath away.

Emily circled the piece, and her mouth hung open. “Wow, is this how you see it in your head?”

“Almost exactly,” he said with a bit of reverent awe. “How did he do that? I wouldn’t even be able to sit down and make it look exactly right, but this artist did. It’s amazing. I have to have it.”

Links

Giveaway

About the Author

Bio for Christi Snow

As an avid reader her entire life, Christi Snow always dreamed of writing books that brought to others the kind of joy she felt when she read. But…she never did anything about it besides jot down a few ideas and sparse scenes.

When she turned 41, she decided it was time to go after her dream and started writing. Within four months, she’d written over 150,000 words and hasn’t stopped since.

She’s found her calling by writing about sexy, alpha heroes and smart, tough heroines falling in love and finding their passion. An author of nine novels, she’s truly living the dream and loving every minute of it. Her days in her West Texas home are spent reading, writing, and taking care of her husband, two kids, and two cats.

Her tagline is… Passion and adventure on the road to Happily Ever After. She’s loving this adventure!

Farewell Giveaway
I have a number of paperbacks, most of which are signed, to giveaway. Over the between now (11 Mar 2017) and 31 Mar 2017, every comment on the blog (this post and all other new posts), will be entered to win 1 of these paperbacks. There are also some misc swag items, so there will be a few packs of these to give away as well.

Thank you so much for your support over the last 4 years. Prism will be closing its doors on 1 April 2017. All content will remain available, but no new content will appear after 31 Mar 2017. As such all request forms have been turned off. Again Thank you,